World faces ageing population time bomb says UN

The world needs to take urgent action to cope with the impact of a rapidly
ageing population, according to a new report, which forecast that the number
of people older than 60 would surpass one billion within a decade.

Japan is currently the only country with an older population of more than 30 per centPhoto: ALAMY

A major study published by the United Nations has warned that the growing numbers of the elderly presented significant challenges to welfare, pension and health care systems in both developing and developed nations.

And it bemoans the fact that skills and knowledge that older people have acquired are going to waste in societies rather than being used to their full.

"We must commit to ending the widespread mismanagement of ageing," said Richard Blewitt, chief executive of HelpAge International, which collaborated on the report, Ageing in the 21st Century.

"We must fully recognise that the vast majority of people will live into old age," he added. "By revolutionising our approach and investing in people as they age we can build stronger, wealthier societies."

Calling the ageing demographic a "megatrend that is transforming economies and societies around the world", the report estimated that one in nine people of the world's population of seven million are over 60.

The size of the elderly population is expected to swell by 200 million within 10 years past the one billion mark and soar to two billion by 2050, it forecast.

The number of centenarians in the world is projected to increase from fewer than 316,600 in 2011 to 3.2 million in 2050.

In Britain there are projected to be half a million centenarians by 2066, with one third of babies born in 2012 expected to celebrate their 100th birthday, according to Government statistics cited.

"The expected growth of the population of older persons should not be an excuse not to act but rather seen as a call to action. A well supported old age is in the interest of all generations," said the 192-page report, which was released in Tokyo, to coincide with International Older Persons Day.

Japanis the only country with an older population of more than 30 per cent, but by 2050, 64 countries are expected to achieve that proportion including Britain.

The report warned that the skills and knowledge that older people have acquired are going to waste, with many of them underemployed, underactive and more likely to become a drain on a nation's resources. Britain is among several European countries that have passed laws against employers discriminating against the elderly but progress has been uneven, said Mr Blewitt.

However successive British governments, like many others, tend to indulge in hand-wringing about the cost of caring for the elderly, he said, rather than exploiting what they had to offer.

Many have skills that would be immensely useful to the voluntary sector but have hardly been tapped on a mass scale. The report calls such opportunities the "longevity dividend".

"Rather than burying our head in the sand and saying old people are going to ruin our economy, we have to see the opportunity in this," said Mr Blewitt.

Ageing, said the report, "is a triumph of development".

"Increasing longevity is one of humanity's greatest achievements. People live longer because of improved nutrition, sanitation, medical advances, health care, education and economic well-being," it continued.

But it warned that the most serious impact of ageing populations would be in developing countries without safety nets or adequate legal protection in place for older people.

In nations now dominated by young workers, urban migration has eroded traditional care of the elderly in extended families, as young parents have left for the cities. The trend has also tended to leave the elderly acting as primary carers of their grandchildren. In rural China, the study estimated that there are 52 million grandchildren looked after by their grandparents.

China was praised by the report for introducing a national pension of £5 a month, but for every developing country that does have some kind of similar scheme, there are nine that do not.

The report expressed concern "about the multiple discrimination experienced by older persons, particularly older women, including access to jobs and health care, subjection to abuse, denial of the right to own and inherit property and lack of basic minimum income and social security".